- December 15, 2025
Zoning plans could be finalized in August. Initial plans for the 20- to 30-year long-term project were OK’d in 2010.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
A 2,924-acre housing-and-business development took strides toward final zoning approval last week.
The city and Tomoka Holdings, a subsidiary of Palm Coast Holdings, agreed to a final revisions of the master development plan for the Ormond Crossings development, located near the intersection of U.S. 1 and Interstate 95.
The project is now on schedule to be presented to the Planning Board during a public hearing July 11, and could be brought before the City Commission for final approval in August.
“It describes some of the particulars, in regards to how the layout and architecture and roads will look,” Joe Mannarino, the city’s director of economic development, said of the master development plan.
Much of the plan remains the same as when it was approved in 2010, Mannarino said, adding that most of last week’s progress had to do with finalizing language and condensing all the technical aspects of the plan into a single document.
During the past nine months, the city and Tomoka Holdings have been going over comments the Planning Board made during a public hearing approximately a year ago.
“I’m very excited,” Mannarino said. “It’s been a long process. The economy has slowed down, but (the project) seems to be rekindling itself.”
Mannarino added that the development is still a long-term project, estimating it could be 20 to 30 years until it’s finished, but he predicted it would become an “economic engine of the city and Volusia County in the future.”
Mayor Ed Kelley also said he was excited about the recent developments, adding he hopes the new progress toward final zoning approval may help investor interest.
But because it’s such a long term project, despite the recent progress, there remains to be no immediate plans to develop the land.
“We’ve just been going about getting all the land-use approvals and permitting while the market has been in flux here in the last few years,” said David Lusby, vice president of commercial land sales for Palm Coast Holdings. “Once there’s strong evidence the housing market has rebounded, we’ll at least have the property zoned for development.”
Lusby said there have been conversations with interested investors recently, but nothing he considered unusual or leading to “serious or imminent” development.
The development has been approved for 2,950 homes, and before the first 1,000 are built, Mannarino said developers must build several recreational and leisure services elements, like a 600-square-foot community center, athletic fields, walking paths and shuffleboard and tennis courts.
There are additional recreational elements that will need to be built before the the 2,000-home mark is reached, as well.
The development, aside from the residential and business development portions, will also include a minimum of 20 acres for an elementary school, 400 acres of stormwater retention and 450 acres of open space, Mannarino said.
